QUICK­FIRE

News­reader Kr­ish­nan Guru-Murthy on Mad­ness, mid­dle age and his mum’s curry

Guilty plea­sure? The X Fac­tor. Where is home? I grew up in Lan­cashire, but I would say Lon­don. Ca­reer plan B? Ac­tor. I was go­ing to be one, but then I got a job as a TV pre­sen­ter. Who would play you in a movie of your life? Ob­vi­ously Lenny Henry. Big­gest bug­bear? I’m in­tol­er­ant of stu­pid­ity – I get cross when peo­ple are be­ing dim. As a child you wanted to be… A doc­tor like my dad and grandad. Ear­li­est mem­ory? An ant in­fes­ta­tion in the house where I was born. What is your best qual­ity? I look af­ter my friends. And your worst? I’m im­pa­tient. Last meal on earth? My mum’s curry. It’s my favourite. Dream din­ner-party guests? Don­ald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Bashar al-As­sad, Samuel L Jack­son, Madonna and maybe Tony Blair. The first topic of con­ver­sa­tion would prob­a­bly be World War Three. Ad­vice to teenage self? Don’t worry so much. Chill out. Se­cret skill? I’m quite techie – I could be your com­puter sup­port man. What do you see when you look in the mir­ror? I see an over­weight, mid­dle-aged man so I try not to look too much. Starstruck mo­ment? Prob­a­bly when I was 18, dur­ing my first in­ter­view with Depeche Mode. I was a real fan of them as a teenager so I was blown away. Ca­reer high­light? It’s al­ways the last thing I did that re­ally mat­tered so it’s prob­a­bly high­light­ing the famine in Ye­men last year. Big break? Pre­sent­ing Open To Ques­tion on BBC2 when I was 18. Favourite tip­ple? A good bordeaux. Hang­over cure? Nuro­fen be­fore bed, lots of wa­ter and a Be­rocca when you wake up. What did you have for break­fast this morn­ing? Two pieces of toasted soda bread. Top of your bucket list? I would quite like to jump out of an aero­plane. Big­gest in­spi­ra­tion? Sir Robin Day. I re­mem­ber watch­ing him as a kid as he in­ter­viewed politi­cians with a healthy con­tempt. One thing that would make your life bet­ter? Know­ing that my fam­ily is go­ing to be happy. Phi­los­o­phy? Keep reach­ing. Never give up. Worst job you’ve ever done? I haven’t re­ally done any bad jobs. I’ve been lucky. Last film that made you cry? Moon­light. First record you bought? I think it might have been a Mad­ness record. Favourite book? An­i­mal Farm by Ge­orge Or­well. Big­gest ex­trav­a­gance? Eat­ing out. My favourite food is Ja­panese. Big­gest re­gret? Not work­ing harder at univer­sity – I was too busy mak­ing TV pro­grammes. Celebrity crush? I used to have one on Geri Hal­li­well about 15 years ago. I met her re­cently and she’s nice – I said ‘I love you, I’ve read your book.’ She was quite sur­prised! Hap­pi­ness is… A happy child. Kr­ish­nan Guru-Murthy is an am­bas­sador for Stand Up To Can­cer, a joint na­tional fundrais­ing cam­paign from Can­cer Re­search UK and Chan­nel 4. Join the re­bel­lion this au­tumn. Visit standup­to­cancer.org.uk